I remember hearing at some point about a painter who claimed to have forged some paintings that he sold for a lot of money (they were supposedly by some famous artist no doubt). The critics didn’t believe that these paintings were forgies because they were too close to the style of the original, and so to prove it the forger sat down and let them watch as he created a perfect copy.
Is there any truth to this? Is it an urban legend? If its true who was the guy, when was this, and what were the paintings?
Probably the most celebrated forger of the 20th century was Elmir De Horey, whose work was often considered superior to the original artists. He was extremely prolific and produced works supposed to have been by Modigliani, Picasso, Matisse, and scores of others. He created such an uproar when he was eventually found out, that his work was considered very valuable on it’s own, and other forgers produced forged “Elmirs”.
My favourite anecdote in connection is one about Pablo Picasso, who had been called in to verify which paintings in a collection were genuine and which were fakes–
He identified several as forgeries, and a friend who was present protested one of the ones that he had fingered: “But, Pablo! I saw you paint that one myself!”
Picasso deadpanned, “I can paint a fake Picasso as well as anyone!”